Sunday, July 12, 2009

Pay no Attention to that Woman behind the Curtain

When I was in Oregon last weekend, Mom and I went to Ross where I finally found some curtains that I liked for the closet door opening. I've only been looking since March, but part of the reason it has taken so long is that I don't want to spend a lot of money on this. So when I found curtains I like for $8 apiece (I need 2) I was thrilled. Score! (And no sales tax, to boot.)

The curtains are a sheer tan fabric with faint cranberry bands and cream and dark brown threads running through it backed by a lightweight golden fabric. Lovely. I was totally jazzed to get these up this weekend, so yesterday I laundered them--wash in cold water; gentle cycle; tumble dry low; iron as needed. I followed the cleaning instructions to the letter. I used the hand washables cycle on the washer, and the delicate cycle on the dryer.

Wouldn't you know it. The sheers did a Shrinky Dink and are now a full 2 feet shorter and narrower than the golden backing.

When I took them from the washer, I even thought, "these are lightweight enough to air-dry, but I'll follow the instructions." Bugger. You think after all these years I would learn to listen to myself from time to time.

Well, I'm certainly not driving back to Oregon to return them, and it would cost nearly as much to ship them back and have a new set shipped to me. I'm going to at least try to return them to my local Ross, even though I'm sure they won't have anything to replace them with.

Ugh. I hate going to Ross here. People seem to have so little respect for other people's property and they rummage through the merchandise as though they were going through someones used cast offs.